Ex-Florida GOP chair gets 1½ years for stealing

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida has been sentenced to one-and-a-half years for stealing more than $125,000 in party funds.

Jim Greer was sentenced in Orlando Wednesday, more than a month after he pleaded guilty to four counts of theft and a single count of money laundering.

The sentence was less severe than the three-and-a-half years in prison requested by prosecutors. A trial had threatened to expose the underbelly of Florida's dominant political party and its formerly high-spending ways.

Topics covered in pretrial depositions included allegations of prostitutes at a fundraiser in the Bahamas and the drinking habits of former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Prosecutors say Greer funneled almost $200,000 to a company he formed with his right-hand man and kept $125,000 for himself.